One in three fines handed to citizens in Cyprus for breach of measures aiming to curb the spread of the coronavirus get to be referred to the Law Office for cancellation.
Because a good enough number of complaints regarding covid-19 fines that police receive on a daily basis are deemed valid, Philenews reported on Friday.
Many of the complaints are unjustified and submitted either because they want to get at the police officer who issued it or because of ignorance of the decrees in place.
However, some complaints are justified since the fines were issued either because of overzealousness of the police officer or because no discretion was exercised.
In fact, many times people are amazed by how wrong the decrees or the judgment of the police can be. A recent example is that of two police officers in Omorfita area arguing over whether they should report an old woman who was wearing her mask under her nose.
One was arguing that they shouldn’t hand her a fine and the other was adamant that they should. In the end, the old woman was fined but then she went to the local police station where she filed a complaint.
The woman was not able to pay the €300 out-of-court settlement since she is only getting the minimum pension monthly. Her fine was sent for cancellation.
